


jumpstarted

by elderflower_macarons



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 03:18:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20771663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elderflower_macarons/pseuds/elderflower_macarons
Summary: [yet another tumblr repost bc i have no shame and want to throw my writing Everywhere] [kinda pretty major amnesty finale spoilers]Falling in love is… weird, to say the least.





	jumpstarted

When Duck realizes he’s fallen for Minerva, he’s… _scared_, in the weirdest sense. 

Life begins to feel comfortable, far more comfortable than it had ever felt before. He sits in his apartment. He breathes, he drinks sometimes (and it’s _rare_, but he does), he watches TV, and he exists. The numbness that came when the dust settles had taken over for a bit. Life is quiet for once. He has fulfilled his _destiny_, for Christ’s sake - what was he supposed to do _now_ that he had nothing to avoid? Kepler is quiet for once. It’s almost _unnerving_ how quiet the town had become after all this time. After fire and water and war and everything in-between. Yet Minerva is there with him, in the _flesh_ and something about that is _soothing_ to Duck after all this time. Maybe it’s because she’s _there_. She knows about everything that lead up to this moment, and she _understands_ pretty damn well. 

And things change between them as time goes on. Minerva’s smile and call of “_Wayne_ Newton” with a knowing smile _always_ tugs at the corners of Duck’s lips sometimes. For a second he regrets telling her, but the feeling passes quickly and it’s endearing in the strangest sense. For so long, he’s shoved back his name - the only people who called him _Wayne_ was his mother, and on occasion, Jane when she was giving him a shit-eating grin and a shrill mockery of their mother. But with Minerva, it almost feels _natural_ now. He trusts her, just as he did before. 

Falling in love is… _weird_, to say the least. When he decides to go to Brazil, he wasn’t sure what to expect from Minerva. But with a smile and her proudest voice, she announces her decision to accompany him there in order to help. And, sure, the window between their return to Kepler and this decision to go to Brazil never lasted long - but… it’s almost as if there’s a small sense of _adventure_ in the decision.

And then Duck realizes that taking Spanish in high school didn’t mean _shit_ in Brazil. But he’s helping. He saw the news about the Amazon, and he decided to help, so he decides he’s _definitely_ going to stick with it. This is helping people. He _wants_ to help people, even if it means he’s going to have to struggle through learning a new language. Minerva stands at his side the entire way, encouraging as always when he needs it most. It’s almost as if she can read him like a book, seeing the moments he begins to falter for even a millisecond and she’s _there_ to support him. 

He didn’t realize it for the longest time, but… with Minerva, he sees himself as who he can become rather than just who he is. He remembers when he saved Billy, their argument, the way she realized who she was becoming, and how she changed. He thinks about the fact that she _chose_ him. He wonders if this is how things were meant to go. Then he realizes he can’t envision anything else happening, like _this_ is the only path there was. To fight and win. To return to Kepler, to come to Brazil, and, if he’s honest, he… he _can’t_ envision this path without Minerva at his side.

That’s when he falls. He didn’t realize it at first - but, then again, who knows for _sure_ when they fall entirely for another person? The thought doesn’t hit him for a while. The comfort between him and Minerva feels a thousand times more _something_ (Duck can’t put his finger on what that something _is_ at first), and yet he’s… strangely scared. 

It’s not like he’s scared in the traditional sense - there’s no way he _could_ be. But… it starts with the strange fluttery feeling that he mistook for nerves. He shrugs it off. He’s in Brazil and doesn’t know the language - of course he’s nervous. That’s normal, isn’t it? He becomes… _different_. Almost as if he’s become more aware of everything. He notices that Minerva, upon learning how, makes coffee in the mornings and the way she takes hers with two sugars and a little bit of milk on good days, and she takes it black on the days where she seems a bit more _stressed _(and he knows when she’s stressed - she has this little habit of growing a bit antsy, pacing a bit, drumming her fingers restlessly, and there’s just this way that she holds herself that he’s acutely aware of - and, if all else fails, there’s this little twitch in her brow - or, rather, the _paint_? - that gives her away completely). 

He doesn’t realize it until he’s mid-sip in his coffee one morning. And he feels fucking _stupid_ \- like he’s a _damn teenager_ all over again with the stupid butterfly-feelings that keep nipping at the back of his mind. He’s strangely thankful Beacon isn’t there, because Beacon would have _known_ and _never_ let him live that down. It’s weird. He’s _nervous_ and _afraid_ for the first time in a while. When he and Minerva couldn’t justify going their separate ways, he dismissed it as just being the fact they’d been through so much together. But now he knows, and he’s strangely scared because of it.

He doesn’t tell her at first - that… that didn’t seem _Duck Newton-ish_, in his eyes. Besides, he knows himself well enough. He knows that, most likely, he’d blurt it out in a rush of words and as a spur of the moment thing. Then he’ll try to assuage those thoughts were just _random_, and he’s _fine_, just in case Minerva _doesn’t_ feel anything there past pure, platonic companionship. 

But that actually isn’t what scares him the most. What scares him is the idea that she _does_ harbor feelings for him. It’s silly, isn’t it? He saves the goddamn _world_ and - _yes_, he was _absolutely_ a little afraid in those moments - the thing that’ll do him in is the fact he’s fallen for Minerva. His feelings are _taunting_ him with this fact. 

Minerva picks up on this - _of course she would,_ Duck thinks, _she’s known him this long, she should pick up on something being off_. 

“It seems something is _wrong_, Wayne Newton,” she says, voice eternally holding this little lilt that feels warm and bright and proud, “do you wish to talk about it?” 

He has to bite his tongue for a moment. He looks up at her with an apathetic shrug. Nope. No. Not here, not now, not in this century, not in this _goddamn world_ is he going to say something stupid. “I’m, uh, I’m _good_, Minerva-”

She’s not convinced, and he _knows_ it. “Are you sure, Wayne Newton?”

Another apathetic shrug, which he follows with an equally disinterested nod. “I’m sure.”

She blinks at him, giving him a quick once-over before she sort-of smiles in that weird, slightly concerned way that people do sometimes. “If you wish to talk, _Wayne Newton_, do not be afraid to contact me!”

And maybe he will. 

**Author's Note:**

> i drop out of college purely so that i can write waynerva and not think about my fucking chem test tomorrow
> 
> [also my tumblr still exists at elderflower-macarons pls talk to me about these cuties]


End file.
